Vice President U S

The personification of the white-haired Washington insider, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr. has spent more than half his life in the Senate, seemingly so in love with his own voice that his colleagues must fight to be heard at his hearings. A hundred miles away from Capitol Hill, however, is another Joe Biden -- more a character in Mister Rogers' neighborhood than a globe-trotting statesman or a pontificating fixture on the Sunday talk shows. He is a putterer who plants bushes in his backyard and designed his own house, including space for his elderly parents.

The gaffes keep piling up: the untimely comments stoking fears of swine flu, dismissals of Russia that seem straight out of the Cold War. But in defiance of the normal rules of American politics, Vice President Joe Biden appears to be solidifying his relationship with his boss and accumulating more assignments central to the administration's agenda. Having lined up support in the Senate to assure passage of the $787-billion economic stimulus plan, Biden was recently tapped by President Obama to play a bigger role in the healthcare debate that is now dominating the congressional agenda.

Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. Dan Quayle has a net worth of roughly $1.2 million, but stands to gain income later in his life from a family trust worth an estimated $600 million, according to financial disclosure forms released by his office Friday. Quayle's largest personal asset is his home in McLean, Va., a wealthy suburb of Washington.

WASHINGTON -- Voters have by now memorized Sarah Palin's string of historic firsts on a Republican presidential ticket: first woman, first hockey mom, first moose dresser. Now it turns out the 44-year-old Alaska governor has injected another groundbreaker into national politics. She's a winker. She winks on rope lines and at rallies. She winked at least six times at 70 million viewers on the vice presidential debate platform opposite her rival, Sen. Joe Biden, who weighed in on the nonverbal communication scale by grinning like a nutcracker.

For the last four years, Vice President Dick Cheney has made the controversial claim that his office is not fully part of the Bush administration in order to exempt it from a presidential order regulating federal agencies' handling of classified national security information, officials said Thursday.

Four days before the 1988 presidential election, Bureau of Prisons Director J. Michael Quinlan ordered a federal prisoner be placed in detention and barred from talking to reporters about allegations that the prisoner had once sold marijuana to now-Vice President Dan Quayle, according to a Bureau of Prisons lawyer's letter disclosed in federal court this week. In a letter to a lawyer representing convicted drug smuggler Brett C. Kimberlin, Bureau of Prisons regional counsel Carolyn A.

Republican nominee George Bush won an overwhelming victory over Democrat Michael S. Dukakis in Tuesday's presidential election despite a late surge of support for the Massachusetts governor among previously undecided voters and wayward Democrats. Late returns showed Bush winning a solid majority of the popular vote nationwide and chalking up substantially more than the 270 electoral votes needed for victory.

The gaffes keep piling up: the untimely comments stoking fears of swine flu, dismissals of Russia that seem straight out of the Cold War. But in defiance of the normal rules of American politics, Vice President Joe Biden appears to be solidifying his relationship with his boss and accumulating more assignments central to the administration's agenda. Having lined up support in the Senate to assure passage of the $787-billion economic stimulus plan, Biden was recently tapped by President Obama to play a bigger role in the healthcare debate that is now dominating the congressional agenda.

Most Americans continue to doubt Vice President Dan Quayle's qualifications to be President, yet, despite President Bush's recent heart problem, few seem prepared to let those doubts seriously influence their vote in 1992, according to The Times Poll. The good news for Quayle and his backers is that only one in 14 Americans says that having Quayle on the GOP ticket would be the deciding factor in voting against Bush, and the President's illness has had little impact on that number.

Republican vice presidential candidate Dan Quayle was admitted to law school in 1970 through a special "equal opportunity" program designed to "reach out" to the poor, racial minorities and other students who might not be admitted through regular procedures, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported Friday. A Quayle spokesman confirmed that the program was Quayle's route into law school, but defended its use.

Sarah Palin must sound authoritative and authentic. Joe Biden must sound informed and inoffensive. Both need to reach through the television to connect with middle America. With Wall Street gyrating and voter interest skyrocketing, tonight's televised contest stands as an oddity: a vice presidential debate that could actually matter. The stakes could hardly be greater, particularly for the Republicans.

Alaska's investigation into whether Gov. Sarah Palin abused her power, a potentially damaging distraction for John McCain's presidential campaign, ran into intensified resistance Tuesday when the attorney general said state employees would refuse to honor subpoenas in the case. In a letter to state Sen. Hollis French, the Democrat overseeing the investigation, Republican Atty. Gen. Talis J. Colberg asked that the subpoenas be withdrawn. He said the employees would refuse to appear unless either the full state Senate or the entire Legislature voted to compel them.

Barack Obama is known for his eloquent speeches, but as he tries to regain his lead in the polls and beat back an energized Republican ticket, he is adding something new to his delivery: volume. Obama has uncorked some thunderous lines in recent campaign stops, showing a measure of emotion the normally unflappable candidate has seldom displayed. His speeches are now laced with indignation as he argues that anyone who sees John McCain and Sarah Palin as vehicles for change is being duped.

The emergence of Sarah Palin as a political force in the presidential race has left many top Democrats fretting that, just two weeks after their convention ended on an emotional high, Barack Obama's campaign has suddenly lost its stride. Obama has responded aggressively this week to Palin's presence on the Republican ticket, using TV ads and campaign rallies to attack her contention that she is a political reformer who will take on the Washington establishment -- a role Obama has long claimed as his alone.

Three of the politicians seeking the nation's highest offices appeared in lengthy broadcast interviews Sunday, but the hottest topic for all of them was the missing fourth candidate -- Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. Palin, the Alaska governor whom Arizona Sen. John McCain selected as his running mate more than a week ago, has yet to make an unscripted public appearance. Instead, she has used her public events to deliver speeches, not to answer questions directly from voters or reporters.

Here is something you might not have thought about much lately, but by the time Nov. 4 rolls around, trust us, you will know it better than you know your own mother: Governors make decisions. They are chief executives. They veto stuff. They never vote "present." Sarah Palin took a few minutes during a luncheon for the Republican Governors Assn. on Thursday to press the argument that her 21 months as Alaska's governor have given her a leg up on her opponent, or rather, her ticket mate's opponent.

The mystery woman of the great white north, Sarah Palin, introduced herself to the nation last night as a regular "gal." And now Americans craving more information about the would-be vice president of the United States will turn to . . . Yes, their supermarket checkout counters. There, a cornucopia of no fewer than four celebrity publications -- People, Us Weekly, OK! and the National Enquirer -- will shout with headlines about the young governor of Alaska. Is she the plucky and competent everywoman, ready to fight the pointy-headed elites of Washington?

Ronald Reagan's White House physician said Monday he now believes that executive power should have been transferred to then-Vice President George Bush after Reagan was shot on March 30, 1981. Dr. Daniel Ruge said that in hindsight, the emergency provisions of the 25th Amendment allowing for the transfer of authority should have been invoked after the assassination attempt.

We knew that Wednesday night's boffo speech to the Republican National Convention by newly minted vice presidential nominee Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was a huge hit inside the house. But perhaps no one among the GOP faithful swooned more than Rush Limbaugh. El Rushbo, the self-appointed voice of broadcast conservatism to his many millions of faithful listeners, had been less than enthusiastic about the candidacy of Sen. John McCain. But he has been an enthusiastic booster of Palin, and Sept.

The mystery woman of the great white north, Sarah Palin, introduced herself to the nation last night as a regular "gal." And now Americans craving more information about the would-be vice president of the United States will turn to . . . Yes, their supermarket checkout counters. There, a cornucopia of no fewer than four celebrity publications -- People, Us Weekly, OK! and the National Enquirer -- will shout with headlines about the young governor of Alaska. Is she the plucky and competent everywoman, ready to fight the pointy-headed elites of Washington?